Arkansas Police Use Taser on 10-Year-Old Girl

This is a discussion on Arkansas Police Use Taser on 10-Year-Old Girl within the In the News: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly forums, part of the The Back Porch category; Last week a 10-year-old Arkansas girl who refused to shower before bedtime and threw a fit was zapped with a police Taser after her mother ...

I found these items interesting;

Last week a 10-year-old Arkansas girl who refused to shower before bedtime and threw a fit was zapped with a police Taser after her mother gave the officer permission. The girl was then handcuffed and taken to a youth shelter, accused of disorderly conduct. She apparently was not injured.

And why? Because the officer responded to force appropriately., as he was trained to do.

Today, the mayor of tiny Ozark called on the state police or the FBI to investigate whether the electronic weapon should have been used on someone so young, the Associated Press reports.

"People here feel like that he made a mistake in using a Taser, and maybe he did, but we will not know until we get an impartial investigation," said Mayor Vernon McDaniel.

The state police declined, saying it only investigates criminal, not policy, matters. The FBI also demurred.

Police Chief Jim Noggle said no disciplinary action was taken against Officer Dustin Bradshaw for the Nov. 11 incident. He said Tasers can safely subdue people who are a danger to themselves or others.

"We didn't use the Taser to punish the child — just to bring the child under control so she wouldn't hurt herself or somebody else," Noggle said, adding that she was zapped for "less than a second."

He explained that had the officer tried to forcefully handcuff the girl he could have broken one of her arms or legs.

Sound familiar?

The girl's father, Anthony Medlock, told the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette that his daughter has emotional problems, but that she didn't have a weapon and shouldn't have been Tasered.

Doesnt matter, Dad. (twit) You dont respond to force with equal or less force. You go one step above. Go drive your truck.

"My daughter does not deserve to be tased and be treated like an animal," said Medlock, who is divorced from the girl's mother and does not have custody.

Where are you Dad? Not at home raising your kid.

According to Bradshaw's report, police were called to a home because of a domestic disturbance. When he arrived, the girl was curled up on the floor, "screaming, kicking and resisting every time her mother tried to touch her." Her mother told the officer he could "tase her" if needed, and they then carried the girl into the shower. The girl continued to defy her mother's orders.

"At this point I decided that there was not going to be a peaceful resolution to the issue," Bradshaw wrote. "I moved her into the living room and told her she was going to jail. She continued kicking and crying and I began to try to place her under arrest. She was jerking her arms away from me violently while I was trying to cuff her and thrashing about wildly.

"While she was violently kicking and verbally combative, [the girl] struck me with her legs and feet in the groin. The subject was actively resisting arrest at this time. I was having a difficult time placing the cuffs on her and administered a very very brief drive stun to her back with my taser. She immediately stopped resisting and was placed into handcuffs. She would not walk on her own and I had to carry her to my police car."

With that, I'm growing tired of this thread and going around in circles. Attached is the actual officers investigative supplement for your reading pleasure.

Here is what I think. Electrical shock is bad for a human body no matter if it is an adult or a child. I would guess that it is more harmful to a 10 year old then an adult due to the fact that their body has not finished developing. If the officer felt the need to use non-lethal force then why did he not use his pepper spray? I can sit here and everyone else can sit here and say they would do this or that but the truth is none of use were there.

Here is what I think. Electrical shock is bad for a human body no matter if it is an adult or a child. I would guess that it is more harmful to a 10 year old then an adult due to the fact that their body has not finished developing. If the officer felt the need to use non-lethal force then why did he not use his pepper spray? I can sit here and everyone else can sit here and say they would do this or that but the truth is none of use were there.

Pepper spray is much more dangerous of an option, especially with a child. It has a much stronger history in causing more problems with the excited delirium phenomenon, and is a poor choice tactically speaking in close quarters when other options are available.
Because of the reasons I've listed, a lot of officers don't even carry OC anymore.

Thanks for the link nightsonge. I'm still perplexed by the suspension. If the Taser is on, the camera is as well. The officer cannot control them separately. Perhaps its simply a political move to get the officer out of the lime light until things blow over.

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(Uh for what purpose? Is it the officer's job to help bathe your kid? Did they think tossing her in the shower would calm her? What was this really about?)

During which time the girl resisted, and the idiot got kicked. Big surprise. Who actually caused the problem here?

Again, why was this girl resisting going to the shower? And now, for the first time since it was mentioned in the writeup, Why was the girl resisting being touched by the mother. There can be only two answers: prior experience with abuse or emotional difficulties. The latter didn't need to be criminalized by escalating the events--dragging the kid to the shower. That is just odd.

This has the feel of an instance where an abusive mother enlisted the cops to further the abuse. We don't know that, but it is so far off the norm.

State police and FBI seem justified in refusing to investigate taser policy, but there sure is something that needs additional investigation. What went on in that house, why did it get out of hand, what role if any did the police play in causing it to get out of hand, and why was something possibly done off camera? Initially I thought the kid was tased in the house in front of mom. Now it appears it happened at the car, and my oh my, no record.

That suspension should hold at least until there are more answers; and the town mayor needs to insist on getting those answers. The community DA needs to get some answers. It may be that the wrong person was arrested here.

I'll agree with everything you have said in the above post Hopyard with two exceptions.

1st, assuming the officer is an 'idiot'. He may very well be, but thats a awfully strong assumption. The biggest mistake he made was getting involved in a parents issue, not a LE role.

2nd is the "no record". Yes, there is an record of the tasing. Every time the Taser is fired, there is a time stamp stored on an internal hard drive. It tells the time and date as well as how long the device was used. The camera is an add on feature to the Taser. Most departments across the country do not use them, as they are a waste of money. As one of the few non Taser employed certified armorers in the country, I'll be the first to tell you that the Taser cam is a piece of crap. We have a dozen in our inventory, and they are very problematic. Audio and video quality is horrible too. I think my department wasted a lot of money on them. Taser doesn't even support them anymore.

We are getting somewhere

I'll agree with everything you have said in the above post Hopyard with two exceptions.

1st, assuming the officer is an 'idiot'. He may very well be, but thats a awfully strong assumption. The biggest mistake he made was getting involved in a parents issue, not a LE role.

We are getting somewhere now. Indeed officer may not be an idiot. We here (in many threads) inappropriately label foolish mistakes and those who make them. SO, yes, we actually agree on this part.

I'll eat my characterization of the officer. I do think that attempting to take the girl to the shower (Was she disrobed? Was she about to be forcibly disrobed? ) was very foolish. A wiser person might have at least asked for assistance from a female officer. So, yes, I'll take back the word idiot, and substitute a more polite and appropriate, "unwise."

2nd is the "no record". Yes, there is an record of the tasing. Every time the Taser is fired, there is a time stamp stored on an internal hard drive. It tells the time and date as well as how long the device was used. The camera is an add on feature to the Taser. Most departments across the country do not use them, as they are a waste of money. As one of the few non Taser employed certified armorers in the country, I'll be the first to tell you that the Taser cam is a piece of crap. We have a dozen in our inventory, and they are very problematic. Audio and video quality is horrible too. I think my department wasted a lot of money on them. Taser doesn't even support them anymore.

You know about these things, I don't. Apparently per the news story the police chief thought this sufficient grounds to suspend. I'd like to think the chief acted rationally, and that the chief also understands the limitations and capabilities of the equipment his folks have. But, I am fully aware that he may have just been looking for any excuse to "do something" before the townspeople run him, and the mayor, out of town.

Last edited by Hopyard; November 20th, 2009 at 03:46 PM.
Reason: typo correction

re: Hot Guns

So what do you do? You do what you gotta do, knowing that you are going to get armchair commandoed by every one that considers themselves experts on the situations because they read a news article.

It is really amazing to me.

That may well be. But you can make all the we v us comments you want, and complain about armchair commandos all you want, but the facts of this situation won't change. Something really wrong happened. In fact several things that were really wrong happened.

The whole deal was wrong at absolutely every level and an investigation is needed. I sincerely hope it wasn't you or a close friend who got into this.

That may well be. But you can make all the we v us comments you want, and complain about armchair commandos all you want, but the facts of this situation won't change. Something really wrong happened. In fact several things that were really wrong happened.

No doubt about that.

The whole deal was wrong at absolutely every level and an investigation is needed. I sincerely hope it wasn't you or a close friend who got into this

No worries there. Ozark is about an 45minutes up I-40 from me. I've been to the Ozark PD a few times and they are about as podunky as the depts. I work for. As a matter of fact, their Prosecutor is my Prosecutor. I'll ask him about that next time I see him.

We are getting somewhere now. Indeed officer may not be an idiot. We here (in many threads) inappropriately label foolish mistakes and those who make them. SO, yes, we actually agree on this part.

I'll eat my characterization of the officer. I do think that attempting to take the girl to the shower (Was she disrobed? Was she about to be forcibly disrobed? ) was very foolish. A wiser person might have at least asked for assistance from a female officer. So, yes, I'll take back the word idiot, and substitute a more polite and appropriate, "unwise."

You know about these things, I don't. Apparently per the news story the police chief thought this sufficient grounds to suspend. I'd like to think the chief acted rationally, and that the chief also understands the limitations and capabilities of the equipment his folks have. But, I am fully aware that he may have just been looking for any excuse to "do something" before the townspeople run him, and the mayor, out of town.

Originally Posted by HotGuns

Sounds great...if you live in utopia.

In this county we have NO female officers to assist.

So what do you do? You do what you gotta do, knowing that you are going to get armchair commandoed by every one that considers themselves experts on the situations because they read a news article.

It is really amazing to me.

Female officer or not, I wouldn't go any where near that scenario. It is no where near the officers scope of duty to ensure a child bathes. He got himself wrapped up in trying to help mom and be a surrogate daddy. The child is not in any grave danger if she does not shower that evening, nor does she need to shower before being taken into custody. Maybe there was some odd reason he felt that he needed to do that, but I can't think of any.
Let just say the officer probably "acted stupidly" in regards to that.

I am child free by choice. First and foremost I can't stand kids, second because society has removed the parents right/duty/ability to apply pain reinforced discipline (it is well documented and proven to be an effective training tool).

Now I was also beaten regularly as a child growing up, and I turned out OK. Never got a whippin' I did not earn.

Many a time when I am out in public (shopping, dining) I have so wanted a taser to zap some problem child throwing a tantrum or being feral (while the parent is clearly oblivious to the activities).

Grasseater // Grass~eat~er noun, often attributive \ˈgras-ē-tər\
A person who is incapable of independent thought; a person who is herd animal-like in behavior; one who cannot distinguish between right and wrong; a foolish person.See also Sheep

I am child free by choice. First and foremost I can't stand kids, second because society has removed the parents right/duty/ability to apply pain reinforced discipline (it is well documented and proven to be an effective training tool).

:

Glad everyone doesn't feel like you do about having kids or civilization would end after one generation.

Society has not removed parents right to discipline children with painful methods. That notion is totally incorrect and lacks any basis in fact. Ask any LEO's on this forum if they have ever arrested and jailed a parent for spanking their child whether in home or in public.

Whether parents choose not to use painful forms of discipline on their children is a totally different thing.

Just remember that shot placement is much more important with what you carry than how big a bang you get with each trigger pull.www.ddchl.com
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